So in preparation for Tria's “homecoming”, I snuck back into the city to make contact with my guys on our ship and sail out of there. As I got to the docks, I noticed someone spying on the ship from the roof of one of the building by the docks. One of the king's henchmen, no doubt, there to keep track of my people's movements or see if we returned to the ship. I snuck up on him, and since we couldn't have him warn the king, I took him out. I boarded the ship and sailed back to rendezvous with the others. Hopefully there weren't other people watching, so the king would find out to late that our ship left so he wouldn't have time to track it.
After we connected back up, the group headed for the city in full regalia. We announced that we had rescued Tria and demanded to be let in, but the guards barred us access. It seemed a fight was inevitable, so I provided cover fire with my arrows as the others charged. The guards at the gate quickly broke and fled. There was cursory resistance as we made our way to the castle, but they quickly fled when met with our force. The king, knowing we were coming by now, had locked up the caste tight. We could force our way in through the front gate, but at great risk to our forces and Tria. So, Az and Tria and my men took up positions by the front gate, causing a ruckus and basically keeping the attention of the kings forces. Meanwhile, Isha, Rathimund, and I snuck in through the secret passage we had discovered during our investigation into Tria's disappearance.
We made our way to the king's chambers. We managed to kill his snakemen guards, and I saw his advisor run towards him with some amulet, so I quickly shot him dead. But not quick enough to prevent the king from retrieving the amulet. We tried to take him alive for Tria's sake, but the amulet gave him power like that of the Anathema as the Empress promised, so we couldn't hold back, and he would not stay down. Even after we killed him, he kept coming. Eventually he succumbed to our attacks, blowing out the castle wall behind him with great force in his death throes. But then we were met with an image of the Scarlett Empress, who made threatening gestures at us, most likely displeased at putting a monkeywrench in her plans here.